Assistant Head Coach/ Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (1.1.26)
So as you head into this season finale, what are you hoping for from teams and what are you looking for, sort of specifically?
“Yeah, I mean, Cincinnati’s well coached. Darrin (Simmons) been there for a long time, have played and coached against him a good bit. They have a really good group – very fundamentally sound, really good returners, good core group of players that have done a good job this year, good specialists. So looking to build off the last few weeks. Feel like we’ve definitely made some strides with our young players, and I think that they’re playing extremely hard. And, you know, I thought we did a good job last week of coming out and playing physical in that game. So that’s a positive. And I think you can see that. I think you see it, you know, the improvement that we’ve made over the last couple weeks.”
Bubba, I know it’s been kind of up and down for Corey (Bojorquez) this year. But to get that punt when you guys needed it, how big was that for Corey himself and for the team as a whole?
“Big, big, big play in the game – obviously, flipped the field. Yeah, I think that it was a critical time in the game where we needed a play, and he came through for us.”
I know we’ve asked about Andre (Szmyt) a bunch of times, but to make that 50-yarder, which, you know, got you guys on the board. Just how far he’s come and I guess, what have you seen that’s allowed him to be so much better as the year went on?
“Yeah, well I am very excited about his development over the season. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s been very consistent every day, and he’s definitely improved a lot as the season’s gone along. He’s had really good weeks of practice, and it’s really translated over into the game, you know, he’s done a really good job with that. So operations have been good, and he’s been consistent. He really has. He’s done a really good job in practice, too.”
Bubba, for as much as we talk about maybe like, the youth of this special teams group and, you know, some of the ups and downs, is there, like any player that maybe you can point to on the coverage units – gunner, anything like that – that has really, you know, made you happy with his development.
“Yeah, I would say, honestly, Donovan McMillon’s done a really good job for us. You know, getting kind of, like, thrown into the mix early on and not having really played gunner at all. And because of where we were at with the perimeter, the guys on the perimeter, and we had a need out there, and we kind of just like, “Hey, you’re going to go do this.” And as of like, last week, he’s had the most reps at gunner in the entire NFL. And then we ended up being able to get him really back to his, where he’s best suited at, is at PP. So he’s played at PP the last two weeks. He’s done a good job with that. We trained him throughout the spring and in training camp to be able to do that and take on that role, you know, hoping that he could do it, because that’s a tough position. It’s the quarterback of the unit. So I think that being able to get the gunners out there now, when we played, you know, Tre (Avery) and D Lo (D’Angelo Ross) out there, enables us to get Donovan back inside. So, he’s done a good job. He really has. He prepares well.”
Bubba, you know how it works. You guys have had a couple bad seasons in a row, there’s speculation all over. So, I’m just curious, how do you deal with that personally? How do you think, as a group, the coaching staff has?
“Yeah, honestly, I’m honestly just focused about going out and having a good performance against Cincinnati. I am excited about the development of the young players that have been out there. Like, we just mentioned about Dre (Andre Szmyt) and Donovan and, you know, Rex (Sunahara). I mean, Rex looks like a completely different player. Like how we worked and how we drilled him this spring and in training camp to get to where he’s at and his protection with his footwork. He hit the weight room. Like, being able to see improvements in players like that have me excited about, you know, this team.”
Has stuff come up at all among the team? Like, is there any thoughts on beyond this week, like, is anyone looking ahead or anything like that?
“No, honestly. We’ve been just focused on week to week. I mean, that’s really how it’s been. I’m sure people speculate, but I really am…I’m excited about the guys that have developed over the course of this season, especially the young guys that have factored for us.”
I mean, how much of that approach kind of comes from Kevin (Stefanski) – that’s what we hear from guys over and over again – he’s just the same guy every day. So how much of that comes from him?
“Yeah, I do think it comes. It stems from Kevin, and I do think that it is the right approach to take because, look, everyone’s going to have opinions on, you should do this, you should do that, right? Just focus on your job and doing what you can do and control what you can control. I mean, that’s the best way to handle it, in my opinion, so. I think we’ve done a good job of that. I think this team has played extremely hard, especially like you go back and watch the last two weeks of football. Like, we played hard as a team, we played together, we stuck together. And I think that’s a good sign, you know, and that obviously stems down from the head coach.”
Given all the young guys on this football team, do you feel like the future is really bright with this roster?
“I do. I mean, I do. And I know that at times, it doesn’t feel like that. You know, it cannot feel like that. But if you really do look at, like, how many young players we have that are playing in the games, it’s way more than other teams. So obviously, every team has areas where they need to improve, which I’m sure we will do. So I am excited about the young players that have contributed for our team.”
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